Chemingineering – Heat Pumps
– K Sahasranaman, Independent Consultant – Process Engineering, Energy, Utilities and Safety
A 150 year old contraption – the heat pump – is suddenly seeing its fortunes shooting up. As it can use any kind of heat including waste heat at lower temperatures and transfer it to higher temperatures, it is finding widespread use from domestic heating to industry, particularly in countries in Europe, stricken by the energy crisis in the wake of the Ukraine war.
Indian Chemical Industry in 2022-2023 and Outlook for 2023
– Aashish Kasad, Saral Barlota, EY.
An overview of how the industry fared in 2022 and the prospects for 2023.
An Overview of Decarbonisation Initiatives for Indian Refineries
– Jagadesh Donepudi, KBC
There are multiple pathways for decarbonisation of refineries. Integrating both conventional forms of energy and renewables and optimizing energy efficiency from current assets, refineries can meet emission targets in the most economical manner, as well described in the article.
Net-zero Transition for Oil and Gas Sector: Systems Approach for Sustainability
– Yogendra Shastri, Gaurav Chaudhari, Sminu Bhaskaran, Shirish Kedare, IIT Bombay
The oil and gas sector will be significantly affected by the net-zero transition. There are various promising strategies that can be adopted for such transition. Not only has the sector to make their operations less carbon intensive, it will also need to adopt to changing market dynamics through revised business models. A holistic approach is explained.
Hydrogen Applications for Sustainable Energy
– Rick Rys, ARC Advisory Group
As the energy crisis deepens, there is a lot of attention to shifts to a hydrogen economy. Some amount of hype is created as though a quick transition is possible without realising some of the practical difficulties in the production, transportation and storage of hydrogen.
Invest, Insure and Innovate in Uncertain Times
– Dr Paige Marie Morse, Aspen Technology
As the unprecedented covid crisis abated, the world is thrown into another bout of unpredictable uncertainity due to the Russian – Ukraine war. Meeting such external challenges needs investing in latest technologies, building resilience and innovation.
Latest Developments in Refinery to Petrochemical Integration (Crude Oil to Chemicals)
– Karan Chechi, ChemAnalyst
Refineries are moving away from stand alone to integrating with petrochemicals production. As the need for transportation fuels comes down dramatically, excess crude would need to be converted more and more into petrochemicals. Many direct conversion routes have emerged as outlined here.
Promising Future for Indian Petrochemicals Industry
– Vikash Kumar, Gaurav Singh, Sruthi Chirra, ChemBizR
With the likelihood of crude prices coming down as energy transitions intensify, petrochemical production from crude can benefit. With India’s burgeoning population and rise in living standards, petrochemical demand can only go up and the overall environment from crude prices to newer technologies are coming together for the benefit of the petrochemical industry.
Agrochemicals will Lead the Second Green Revolution
– Sanjiv Lal, Rallis India .
This article summarises the importance of agrochemicals or crop protection chemicals and many new generation biobased technologies that are gathering momentum.
Warehousing for Specialty Chemicals
– Varun Gada, LP Logiscience LLP
Chemicals storage and transportation is unlike for any other material as chemicals can be hazardous, toxic, flammable, reactive to air and moisture.
This needs many specialized techniques for its safe handling and storage. Latest generation technologies, which are available are needed for this and hence only organisations specialized with such expertise should be given this responsibility.
